we're going to work in partnership with the fbi to determine the next steps of the investigation. >> reporter: he says the fragment came from a well believed to hold victims of the so-called speed freak killers. the discovery came after the family of victim joanne hopson got her bones tested. remains of two others were mixed in. the excavation was careless. >> instead of having one bone to identify, they have dozens of fragments of bones to identify. and that seems to me that it's a huge job. >> reporter: she says she's been let down by leads before but this feels different. she had a talk with her other daughter about what they would do if it's michaela and she told her mom this. >> i think that if michaela had been alone in that place for all this time that we should bring her home and keep her at home with the family. >> reporter: now the sheriff steve moore said he was initially taken aback by word of mix-up with the remains. he said the sheriff's department relied on the california department of justice and an anthropologist to take care of this. his arheart goes out to the famy